Thursday 13 August 2009 16.37 EDT
First published on Thursday 13 August 2009 16.37 EDT

The England wicketkeeper Matt Prior said he "hasn't lost too much sleep" over Justin Langer's comments regarding his "massive ego" in a leaked Australian memo. And despite being rested for Sussex's Twenty20 final this weekend Prior said he is ready for next week's deciding Ashes Test, with no chance of the back spasm he suffered in the warm-up before the fourth Test keeping him out of the match at The Oval.

Prior said he had not read the Somerset captain Langer's comments about himself and his team-mates, but knew the former Australian batsman had described him as having "a massive ego" after receiving jokey text messages from some of his friends. But Prior said he expected comments like this to come out in a series against Australia, especially one so closely contested.

"It is important whose advice and whose opinion you should listen to and take seriously. It is not something I would take seriously or listen to. If my team-mates or my friends started saying something like that I might listen to it but otherwise it is nothing," said the 27-year-old. "I haven't lost too much sleep over it."

In the Australian dossier leaked to a Sunday newspaper Langer suggested the Australians should "chip away at Prior about his wicketkeeping". However, the Sussex man said he did not feel like he was specifically targeted, or that the sledging was more prevalent at Leeds than in other Tests.

"No more or less than there would be at any other game. It is part and parcel of the game, whatever anyone's thoughts or ideas are that is fine, that is up to them. The main thing for me is that I concentrate on what I do and stay in my bubble, my zone," said Prior, speaking at a Vodafone Street Sixes event in central London.

Ahead of the fifth Ashes Test felt it was essential for him to focus on Test cricket and that is why the ECB requested that Sussex rest him this weekend.

"All my energy and all my thinking is obviously going towards [the Test], so first and foremost I think it would be unfair on myself or on my Sussex team-mates if I were to turn up on Saturday if my head was not fully on the white ball and Twenty20 cricket – slogging and what not – when really I'm thinking about building a long innings of Test cricket."

Despite a back spasm ahead of the first session at Headingley, Prior went on to score 37 not out in the first innings – England's best batting performance in an abject display – and he categorically denied that his back was preventing him from turning out for his county this weekend.

"No, absolutely not. My back is fine, I've had physio pretty much everyday since the Test match, so today it is 90-95% spot on. It's not anything injury related."